Technological advancements in the field of microelectronics have led to a burgeoning interest in the development of small sized electronic components with better processing efficiency than their larger counter parts. The abundance of prospective applications that exist when electronic components are of reduced size has also fuelled a continuous push for the miniaturization of electronics.
A typical electronic system contains passive components (passives), like resistors, inductors and capacitors, and active integrated circuits (ICs). The number of discrete passives outnumbers ICs by several times and occupies more than 70% of the area of the IC substrate. Discrete passives have already become the major barrier to the miniaturization of electronic systems. The integration of passives is an emerging development theme in the development of the next generation of electronic systems.
Due to the large quantity of capacitors in ICs, the integration of smaller sized capacitors is of much importance. At the same time, the development of microelectronics requires decoupling capacitors with higher capacitance and shorter distance from its serving components. All of these require new dielectric materials with relatively high dielectric constant.
In the miniaturization of electronic circuitry components, transistor size, which is a key semiconductor component in electronic circuitry, has to be reduced. In order to do this, while still maintaining a desirable value of capacitance, the thickness of the gate oxide dielectric has to be decreased to offset the decrease in transitor area, so that the net gate capacitance is sufficient to sustain the current flow in the circuitry. However it is known that when the thickness of the gate dielectric decreases, leakage currents increases resulting in electrical and power inefficiency and subsequently poor device performance. A solution to this is to replace the convention silicon dioxide gate dielectric with a high-κ material which allows increased gate capacitance while minimizing undesirable current leakage.
Materials with high-κ values are known. Around the year 2000, a lead-free perovskite-like oxide CaCu3Ti4O12 (CCTO) was reported with a dielectric constant of about 105. More recently, lithium- and titanium-doped nickel oxide (LTNO) have received a considerable amount of attention for their gigantic dielectric constant that is better than CCTO and that has ignited further studies on aluminum (LANO) and silicon doping (LSNO).
However, the recent discovery of these known materials may not be sufficient due to the increasing demand for materials with high dielectric constant values for various applications. As these recently discovered materials may not be ideally compatible for use in certain microelectronic applications, alternative materials with high-κ values are required.
There is therefore a need to provide new materials with high dielectric constant.
There is a need to provide new high-k ceramic materials that overcomes, or at least ameliorates, one or more of the disadvantages described above.